English Phrasal Verbs with “Ask”
In this lesson, we’ll teach you the phrasal verbs that use the root verb “to ask”:
- to ask for
- to ask about
- to ask around
- to ask after
- to ask in
- to ask out
If you’ve been keeping up with our video series about English phrasal verbs, you should know what a phrasal verb is by now.
If this is your first, welcome! And if you’ve been here before, but you forget what a phrasal verb is, that’s okay! Let’s begin with a quick review. A phrasal verb is a verb that comes with another word, usually a preposition, that changes its meaning. As a result, it becomes an idiomatic phrase (logical, right?).
Phrasal verbs are actually very useful. Instead of memorizing a long list of words that are completely different from one another, you can add something to a word you already know. And voilà! It has a new meaning. Pretty practical.
That said, it’s also what makes them difficult to remember since they are all similar. Memorization techniques and apps with a spaced repetition system, MosaLingua for instance, can help. But mostly, you’ll just need to practice them as often as possible until they stick. And the activity below can help!
Start by reading about the various English phrasal verbs using “ask” in the table below. We’ve provided a definition and an example sentence to give you some more context.
After that, watch Lizzie’s video. For this activity, she picked a clip from Glee, a popular American TV show.
| Phrasal Verb with Ask | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| to ask | to request; to seek information with a question | Ask her to come to the party! |
| to ask about | to request information about someone or something | He asked about my sister. |
| to ask in | to invite someone to come inside your home | She rang the bell so I asked her in. |
| to ask out | to ask someone if they would like to go on a date, or be your girlfriend or boyfriend | I really like Rachel. I'm going to ask her out. |
| to ask for | to request to speak to or see someone | The little boy was crying and asked for his mom. |
| to ask over | to invite someone to come to your house | They asked us over for dinner on Friday. |
| to ask around | to talk to different people in order to get information | I need a plumber. I'm going to ask around and see if anyone knows a good one. |
| to ask after | to ask for news about someone, especially about their health | John was worried about you after your surgery. He asked after you. |
Watch: Pick the Correct Phrasal Verb with “Ask” – Ask Out VS Ask Around
To illustrate the different uses of these phrasal verbs, Lizzie created a short video exercise. She’ll teach you the phrasal verbs with ask, including the meaning of “ask out” and “ask around.” Afterward, she’ll quiz you on what you remember! You can watch it right here or on our YouTube channel. The video is in English. However, you can watch with English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, or Portuguese subtitles. Click the “Settings” gear at the bottom right to active subtitles or change the playback speed.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to learn more phrasal verbs with clips from TV shows
Phrasal Verbs Activity: Video Transcript
If you can’t watch the video right now, you aren’t off the hook. 😉 That means you can still do Lizzie’s exercise.
Firstly, read the transcript from the scene below. After that, fill in the blank with the correct phrasal verb. Take your best guess, then highlight the black lines below with your cursor to reveal the answer! Good luck! (And don’t forget to bookmark this article or share it on your social media so that you can come back and watch the video later!)
Context: In this clip, Kurt has a serious question to ask his good friend, Blaine. Kurt is afraid he has misunderstood Blaine’s feelings.
Transcript:
Kurt: Okay. Can I ask you something? … because we’ve always been completely honest with each other…
You and I, we hang out, we sing flirty duets together, you know my coffee order.
Was I supposed to think that it was nothing?
Blaine: What do you mean?
Kurt: I thought the guy that you wanted to ask ____ on Valentine’s Day was me.
Hint: Not sure what the answer is? We’ll give you a hint! The word in the blank is either (TO GO) OVER or (TO GO) OUT. If you need to refresh your memory of the meaning of “ask out” and “ask around,” you can always scroll up to the table and review the definitions you learned earlier.
Answer
ASK OUT; Kurt thought that Blaine wanted to go on a date for Valentine’s Day with him because they had become quite close. “To ask someone out” means to ask if someone would like to go on a date. Remember, the phrasal verb “ask around” means to ask many people about something.
*If you are reading this on a mobile phone, or if highlighting the text doesn’t show the answer, scroll down to the bottom of the article and flip your device upside down to see if you guessed correctly!
Next Steps…
Lastly, if you liked this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on your notifications. That way, you’ll know when the next video in our phrasal verbs series comes out! In the meantime, here are some other articles you might enjoy:
- English Phrasal Verbs with Take | Take Off VS Out [VIDEO]
- English Phrasal Verbs with Go | Go Out VS Over [VIDEO]
- Make or Do | English Grammar Hacks
- At, On, In – Which Preposition of Place to Use? [VIDEO]
* ˙ǝʇɐp ɐ uo oƃ oʇ ǝʞıן pןnoʍ ǝuoǝɯos ɟı ʞsɐ oʇ suɐǝɯ „ʇno ǝuoǝɯos ʞsɐ o⊥„ ˙ǝsoןɔ ǝʇınb ǝɯoɔǝq pɐɥ ʎǝɥʇ ǝsnɐɔǝq ɯıɥ ɥʇıʍ ʎɐᗡ s,ǝuıʇuǝןɐΛ ɹoɟ ǝʇɐp ɐ uo oƃ oʇ pǝʇuɐʍ ǝuıɐןq ʇɐɥʇ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ ʇɹnʞ ؛⊥∩O ʞS∀